Thursday, 17 December 2015

Jamie Chadwick

Jamie
Chadwick graduated to senior motorsport in 2015. She is a product of the
Ginetta sportscar racing development ladder, one of a few female racers to
utilise this route into the sport.

Jamie
began karting at the age of twelve. Taking advantage of the opportunities in
the UK for juniors to race on full circuits, she switched to cars after only
two years.

She was
the winner of the Ginetta Junior Scholarship in 2012, at fourteen, beating around
sixty other young drivers to the prize of a fully-funded season in the Ginetta
Junior Championship in 2013.

She
took up her prize-drive in Ginetta Juniors in 2013. Between her scholarship win
and the start of the season proper, she took part in the three-round Winter
Series at Rockingham, finishing seventh. She was the highest-scoring
first-timer.

During
her 2013 season, her best result was fifth, at Knockhill. She was usually inside the top ten, averaging
seventh place, but she also had some disappointments; she racked up three DNFs
that year. She was tenth overall. Her brother, Ollie, also raced in the series
against her.

She had
a second full season of Ginetta Juniors in 2014. Her year started well, with a
podium: a third place at Brands Hatch. She racked up four more podium finishes,
all thirds, and was eighth in the championship.

Following
her seventeenth birthday in 2015, it was time to move on. Jamie jumped straight
into the British GT Championship, in the GT4 class. Her car was no less than an
Aston Martin Vantage, run by the Beechdean-AMR team. With her partner, Ross
Gunn, she got off to another good start, with two second places at Oulton Park,
followed by two wins, at Rockingham and Silverstone, a second place at Spa and
a third at Brands Hatch. The only real disappointment of the season was a
disqualification at Oulton, following their second place on the track. The
exclusion was for causing an accident, although it was not deliberate. At the
end of the season, this did not count for much; Jamie and Ross were British GT4
champions. Jamie is the youngest ever winner of the title.

2015
had one more adventure for Jamie. The Beechdean team entered the Vantage in the
Britcar 24 Hours at Silverstone, driven by Jamie, plus Jonny Adam, Harry Whale
and Andrew Howard. They won the race from pole. This was the first win for a
female driver in this event.

In
recognition of her achievements, the BRDC nominated Jamie as one of their
Rising Stars in 2015, along with the support that the award entails. The BWRDC
has put her forward for their Gold Star award, for outstanding female drivers. She
is also part of the Evolution Academy for young drivers, run by Aston Martin
and Prodrive.

She remained a Team AMR driver for 2016, and raced the Aston Martin again in the British GT Championship. Her best finish was fourth, at Brands Hatch. As she missed a couple of races mid-season, she was thirteenth in the championship. Among her team-mates was Great British Bake Off's Paul Hollywood.

Her career changed direction in 2017 when she entered the BRDC Formula 3 Championship. This was her first time in a single-seater. Her first meeting in the Double R-run car was at Oulton, and did not quite go to plan. She was eleventh in her first race, then got disqualified from the second and did not finish the third. The second round at Rockingham went better; she was eighth in the first race, which translated to pole position in the reverse-grid second race. She was third, her best finish of the year. At the end of the season, she was ninth, after being a regular top-ten finisher, but not quite on the winning pace yet.

After the season ended, she took part in her first Formula Ford races at the Walter Hayes Trophy. She was third in her heat at the Silverstone event, following a battle with Michael Mallock, but car trouble intervened and she had to fight for a twelfth place in the final.